Chapter 6: Evangelical Capitalism and Organization

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Abbas J. Ali The abatement of the Cold War and the eventual demise of the Soviet Union have resulted in a unipolar world. More importantly, it has deprived many countries of the relative freedom in choosing their political and economic systems. This point is crucial but organizational scholars often ignore it. Simply, the existence of a unipolar world enables the hegemonic world power to promote its new vision of an economic system to a vast number of developing nations. Faced with overwhelming social, economic, health, and other problems, these countries have found themselves in an unpleasant situation; forced either to follow the dictates of the hegemonic power or be a subject of its wrath. Consequently, their economic opportunities are constrained and their ability to choose an economic system that is relevant is largely curtailed. Some may argue that this situation might be a blessing for developing countries as they could get the necessary insight and assistance for avoiding economic pitfalls and dangerous mineﬁelds and, thus, ascend the path of prosperity and economic development. This optimism, however, is unfounded. The rise of the new global power ﬁercely advocates a version of capitalism and economic organization irrespective of the cultural and economic conditions of other countries. Indeed, the zeal in promoting this new version appears similar in orientation to that of early colonization, but is more radical in its approach and its end game. Generally, the early European colonization of most of the world was primarily motivated by economic exploitation of...

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